Customise Your Live Slates
A live slate is what viewers see when your live stream is embedded but not actively broadcasting — before a scheduled session starts, or after one ends. By default this is a plain black screen with an automatic message. Live Slates let you replace that with your own branding: a background image or looping video, plus styled message text. A slate can be created once and reused across multiple live streams.
Create a slate
- Open Settings, then Workspace settings.
- Under Content, select Live Slates.
- Click New Slate.
- Enter a Slate name and click Add Slate.
You're taken straight to the slate editor to continue customising it.
Choose a background
In the Background section, choose Image or Video:
- Image — click Choose background image. Use a 16:9 image for best results.
- Video — click Choose background video. Videos up to 50MB are supported and loop continuously behind your slate.
Style your message text
In the Message Text section:
- Position — place the message Center, Top, or Bottom on the slate.
- Font Colour and Background Colour — click either swatch to open the colour picker. Use the picker's alpha slider to make a colour transparent.
- Font Family — set the typeface used for the message text.
Preview each state
The preview shows the message viewers see for each stream state — your background and text styling apply to all of them:
| State | Message |
|---|---|
| Upcoming | Countdown to the next scheduled session — "Starting in 2h 15m" when the session is within 24 hours, or "Starting on Fri 31 Oct, 2:00 PM" when it is further away |
| Starting Soon | "Starting soon…" |
| Ended | "This stream has ended" |
| Offline | "This stream is currently offline" |
Use the desktop and mobile icons above the preview to check how the slate looks on each device size.
Click Save Changes once you're happy with the result.
Attach a slate to a live stream
- Open Live and select the live stream you want to brand.
- In Live Details, click the Slate dropdown and select your slate.
The slate is applied immediately — no separate save step. To remove a slate, open the Slate dropdown and select None. A confirmation dialog will appear — confirm to remove the slate from the stream.
A slate isn't tied to one live stream — attach the same slate to as many live streams as you like from each stream's Live Detail page. Click Manage your slates in the picker to jump back to Settings > Live Slates.
Customise the message for a session
The slate design (background and text styling) is shared across all sessions on all streams that use it. You can also set a custom message for an individual session that replaces the default countdown shown while viewers are waiting for the session to start.
- On the Live Detail page, click Edit on the session card.
- In the Edit Session modal, select the Slate Content tab.
- Enter your message in the Custom slate message field.
- Click Save Changes.
If you leave the field blank, the default "Starting in X" countdown is shown instead. You can update the message at any time, including while a session is live.
Delete a slate
Open Settings > Live Slates and click Delete on the slate you want to remove. Deleting a slate that's currently attached to any live streams also removes it from those streams — they revert to the default black slate.